LAISSEZ FAIRE

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Laissez faire means, 'allow to do'. Government abstention from interference in the actions of individuals, especially. in commerce; general non-interference or indifference. Laissez faire was a synonym for strict free market economics during the early and mid-19th century. From the French diction, laisser-faire, laissez faire, laissez aller and laissez passer, means "let do, let go or let pass. laissez faire is an injunction against government interference.

Laissez faire is an economic doctrine that government should not interfere in the economic or social regulation of society unless absolutely necessary. Laissez faire assumes that the competitive system of free markets is the best means of allocation of scarce resources between alternative uses. Government intervention in the market place to regulate economic activity is seen as illegitimate and inefficient. The Laissez faire doctrine lost popularity in the middle of the twentieth century, with the rise of the ‘welfare state’ and extensive public ownership of parts of the economy, but has regained favor in the 1980's and 1990's.

Two rhetorical strategies of laissez-faire
Andy Denis (a.denis@city.ac.uk) - econpapers.repec.org
Journal of Economic Methodology, 2004, vol. 11, issue 3, pages 341-357 
Abstract: To understand the work of economic theorists it is often helpful to situate it in the context of the rhetorical strategy they were pursuing. Two ontologically distinct rhetorical strategies of laissez-faire may be distinguished by the way they articulate the individual interest with the general interest. A reductionist approach, exemplified by Friedman and Lucas, suggests that the properties and behaviour of an entity can be understood in terms of the properties and behaviour of the constituent lower-level components, taken in isolation . The contrary - holistic - stance, viewing the qualities of phenomena as products of the inter-relations between their component parts, is characteristic of Smith and Hayek. While the reductionist approach naturally issues in a laissez-faire policy prescription, the holistic account is more problematic. Reconciling a holistic ontology with a reductionist policy prescription requires the intercalation of a black box, such as an evolutionary process or the invisible hand of a deity. 

FREE TRADE AND LAISSEZ FAIRE
By Deepak Lal, Department of Economics
University of California, Los Angeles
Abstract:: This paper examines the century old debate about free trade and laissez-faire and shows with the famous diagram from Corden’s Trade Policy and Economic Welfare, that the logical conclusion for the modem theory of trade and welfare, once political economy costs are taken into account is that, as the classical liberals maintained, the case for free trade and laissez-faire hang together. 

Devolution, multicultural citizenship and race equality: From laissez-faire to nationally responsible policies 
Charlotte Williams, Keele University 
Philomena De Lima, University of the Highlands and Islands 
csp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/26/3/498
The devolved nations of the UK have been constituted on the basis of the ambition to increase inclusiveness and democratic involvement, underpinned by specific equality duties. As such they represent a critical point of reference for ethnic minorities in securing recognition, rights and representation in core social policy fields that shape their lived experiences of welfare. These newly established policy territories offer a testbed for tracking the development of multicultural citizenship and race equality and for assessing the extent to which the social policy of the constituent nations is responsive to the needs of ethnic minorities. This paper explores these concerns within the context of Welsh and Scottish devolution. Drawing on a range of research data it argues that devolution represents a significant shift from a laissez-faire politics of race to an agenda of nationally responsible policies but this trajectory raises not only a number of questions about the nature, extent and impact of minority inclusion within the nations but encroaches on issues of racialized welfare identities and rights within the wider hegemony of British multicultural citizenship.

The Capitalist Manifesto: The Historic, Economic and Philosophic Case for Laissez-Faire The Capitalist Manifesto: The Historic, Economic and Philosophic Case for Laissez-Faire by Andrew Bernstein (Paperback - Jul 28, 2005) The Capitalist Manifesto defends capitalism as the world's most moral and practical social system. This book is written for the rational mind, whether the reader is a professional intellectual or an intelligent layman. It makes the case for individual rights and freedom in terms intelligible to all rational men.

The End of Laissez-Faire: The Economic Consequences of the Peace The End of Laissez-Faire: The Economic Consequences of the Peace by John Maynard Keynes (Paperback - Mar 25, 2009) In THE END OF LAISSEZ-FAIRE, Keynes presents a brief historical review of laissez-faire economic policy. Though he agrees in principle that the marketplace should be free of government interference, he suggests that government can play a constructive role in protecting individuals from the worst harms of capitalism's cycles, especially as concerns unemployment. When the Great Depression struck a few years later, this work seemed very prescient. Keynes first earned widespread prominence immediately following World War I, when he published THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE PEACE. This book gained a good deal of notoriety because of its withering portraits of both French premier Georges Clemenceau and US president Woodrow Wilson. Keynes criticized the Allied victors for signing a treaty that would have ruinous consequences for Europe, if not modified as he suggested. Unfortunately, few leaders appreciated Keynes's criticisms, and he saw his worst fears realized in the rise of Hitler and the devastation of World War II. Keynes's brilliant mind and lucid writing are evident on every page. Both of these works are well worth reading for his profound knowledge of economics. JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES (1883-1946) was one of the most influential economists of the first half of the twentieth century. His theory of government stimulation of the economy through deficit spending influenced Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal" administration and inspired his most famous work, THE GENERAL THEORY OF EMPLOYMENT, INTEREST, AND MONEY (1935-36)

The Progressive Assault on Laissez Faire: Robert Hale and the First Law and Economics Movement The Progressive Assault on Laissez Faire: Robert Hale and the First Law and Economics Movement by Barbara H. Fried (Paperback - Dec 21, 2001) arly in this century, orthodox statesmen and judges believed that government policies such as progressive taxation and regulation of labor contracts were coercive interferences with natural, and thus also Constitutional, rights of property and liberty. A small band of progressive lawyers and economists arose to challenge that orthodoxy. One of its leaders was Robert Lee Hale, who developed an especially piercing and sophisticated critique of libertarian ideas. In this path-breaking book--rigorous, clear-eyed, marvelously revealing--Barbara Fried unearths for a modern readership the legal-economic thought not only of Hale but of an entire generation of his progressive contemporaries, along with its roots in classical and institutional political economy. She dusts off and makes freshly available a critique of laissez-faire that is in many ways still as powerful--and, lamentably, as necessary--today as it was sixty to seventy years ago. Here are meticulous scholarship, complete mastery of both the underlying structure and the details of legal-economic thought, and above all a gift for explaining complicated ideas and bringing obscure historical figures into brilliant present focus. The Progressive Assault on Laissez-Faire is both an intellectual treasure and a real public service. --Robert W. Gordon, Yale Law School By far the best work on the legal realist movement's attack on 'laissez-faire,' and one of the best demolitions, in law or political theory, of that contested concept. Not only an important contribution to the history of legal thought, this book stands on its own as a critique of the basic distinction between 'government' and 'market.' --Cass R. Sunstein, Law School, University of Chicago

The Little Code of Laissez-faire: 1444 Epigrams on Material Freedom The Little Code of Laissez-faire: 1444 Epigrams on Material Freedom by F L Light (Paperback - Sep 23, 2008) The Economic Epigrams of Liberty The reader is provided with 1444 quotable reasons for economic freedom. Many of these couplets may become as famously cited as lines from Shakespeare. Light brings the classical resplendencies of syntax, diction and fluency to illuminate the truths of Adam Smith, Frederic Bastiat, Ludwig von Mises, George Reisman, Murray Rothbard and other classic liberals of economics. As Shakespeare used Montaigne and Plutarch, so Light applies Mises and Ayn Rand to poetic thought.

The Little Code of Laissez-faire: 1507 Epigrams on Material Freedom The Little Code of Laissez-faire: 1507 Epigrams on Material Freedom by F L Light (Paperback - Aug 8, 2009) The reader is provided with 1507 quotable reasons for economic freedom.

Laissez-Faire Banking (Foundations of the Market Economy) Laissez-Faire Banking (Foundations of the Market Economy) by Kevin Dowd (Paperback - Jul 2, 1996) The idea of free, or laissez-faire, banking has enjoyed a remarkable renaissance in recent years. It is a novel idea that challenges much of what many banking scholars still take for granted --that banking is inherently unstable, that the banking system needs a lender of last resort or deposit insurance to defend it in a crisis, and that the government has to protect the value of the currency. Against this free banking sets an argument which is in essence very simple: if markets are generally better at allocating resources than governments, then what is different about money and the industry that provides it and why? Laissez-Faire Banking is divided into three interrelated sections, dealing with the theory of free banking, historical experiences of it and present-day monetary and banking reforms based on free banking principles.

Airline Deregulation and Laissez-Faire Mythology Airline Deregulation and Laissez-Faire Mythology by Stephen Paul Dempsey and Andrew R. Goetz (Hardcover - Sep 30, 1992) While much of the literature on airline deregulation praises it as a successful adventure in public policy, Professors Dempsey and Goetz conclude that deregulation has failed to achieve any of its principal objectives: better service, more competition, or lower prices. Divided into four parts, their book assesses (1) the airlines, their corporate cultures, and the men who lead them, (2) free market economic theory and the political movement for deregulation, (3) the impact of deregulation on safety, service, concentration, and pricing, and (4) legislative solutions to the problems that have emerged.

The Great Challenge: The Myth of Laissez-Faire in the Early Republic The Great Challenge: The Myth of Laissez-Faire in the Early Republic by Frank Bourgin (Paperback - Mar 1990) From Publishers Weekly Bourgin's cogently argued study deflates the cherished national myth that the early American republic flourished under a policy of benign government noninterference in economic matters. The doctrine of laissez-faire was scarcely known to the framers of the Constitution; the merchant and financial classes, as the author demonstrates, espoused a mercantilist philosophy while they used the powers of the central government to improve their own status. Bourgin shows how Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson both pushed for a strong planning role for the national government. He also focuses on Albert Gallatin, who, as Jefferson's secretary of the treasury, drafted an ambitious federal program for roads and canals, and on John Quincy Adams, a frustrated but prescient central planner. This doctoral dissertation has an unusual history: the University of Chicago rejected it in 1945, and it has only now found a publisher through the intercession of Arthur Schlesinger Jr., who contributes the foreword. Reversing itself in 1988, Chicago accepted Bourgin's thesis and awarded him a Ph.D. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The End of Laissez-Faire: National Purpose and the Global Economy After the Cold War The End of Laissez-Faire: National Purpose and the Global Economy After the Cold War by Robert Kuttner (Paperback - Feb 1, 1992) From Publishers Weekly The collapse of communism and the end of the Cold War--far from signalling a victory for unbridled free-market capitalism--portend the end of laissez-faire economics. That's the provocative thesis of Kuttner's sweeping, important reassessment of America's economy and its place in the newly emerging world order. For a quarter-century after WW II, he argues, the U.S. practiced a mixed brand of capitalism, with much of the national planning done under military auspices. Meanwhile, the U.S. preached laissez-faire, since it was the country best positioned to exploit open global markets. A Business Week columnist and economic correspondent for the New Republic, Kuttner urges a "policy of planning" to reclaim America's industrial leadership, plus a global system of collective security instead of an East-West arms race in which the U.S. acts as free world super-cop. This closely argued book administers a potent dose of economic reality. Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Selected Essays by Frank H. Knight, Volume 2: Laissez Faire: Pro and Con Selected Essays by Frank H. Knight, Volume 2: Laissez Faire: Pro and Con by Frank H. Knight and Ross B. Emmett (Hardcover - Mar 15, 2000) Frank H. Knight (1885-1972) was a central figure—many say the dominant influence—in the development of the "Chicago School of Economics" at the University of Chicago in the 1930s and 1940s, where he taught future Nobel laureates Milton Friedman, James Buchanan, George Stigler, and many other notable scholars. It was Knight's embedded skepticism about the reach of economic knowledge that set the stage for the laissez-faire economics that matured at the University in the 1950s and 1960s. But as important as Knight's technical economic contributions were, he never strayed far from his broad philosophical interests and concern for the state of modern liberal democracy. Ross B. Emmett's selection of Knight's essays is the first to offer a comprehensive picture of the work of this notable social scientist over the span of his career. Included are not only Knight's most influential writings, but also a number of uncollected papers which have not previously been widely accessible. These essays illustrate Knight's views on the central debates regarding economics, social science, ethics, education, and modern liberalism. Volume 1: "What is Truth" in Economics? contains fifteen of Knight's papers up through 1940. Volume 2: Laissez Faire: Pro and Con includes fourteen of Knight's papers from 1940 through 1967, including "Socialism: The Nature of the Problem" and "The Sickness of Liberal Society."

Foundations of 'Laissez-Faire': The Economics of Pierre de Boisguilbert (Routledge Studies in the History of Economics, 31) Foundations of 'Laissez-Faire': The Economics of Pierre de Boisguilbert (Routledge Studies in the History of Economics, 31) by Gilb Faccarello (Hardcover - Jun 21, 1999) To a modern economist, the most striking feature of Buisguilberts work is its resemblance to Keynesian economics. Facarello does s good job of sketching the main parallels. Perhaps this plaint is not so much a criticism of Facarello as it is a statement that despite his workman effort, much remains to be done. Anglo-Saxon scholards of French pre-Smithian economic though will find this book useful, if for no other reason that the dearth of secondary sources on Buisguillbert in English. This book is a welcome addition to a sparse literature in which little new or original research has emerged over the past three decades. - History of Political Economy, Robert F. Hebert, Auburn University. This is the first full length study of Boisguilberts work to appear in English, with an extended discussion of the context in which he worked, a detailed analysis of his life and work, and the theoretical foundations of "laissezifaire".

The Decline of Laissez Faire, 1897-1917: The Economic History of the United States (Special Data Issue,) The Decline of Laissez Faire, 1897-1917: The Economic History of the United States (Special Data Issue,) by Harold Underwood Faulkner (Paperback - Jan 1977) Part of a series of detailed reference manuals on American economic history, this volume traces the development and growth of the factory system, labour movements and foreign and domestic commerce.

Reassessing comparative advantage: the impact of capital flows on the argument for laissez-faire.: An article from: Journal of Economic Issues Reassessing comparative advantage: the impact of capital flows on the argument for laissez-faire.: An article from: Journal of Economic Issues by Robert E. Prasch (Digital - Jul 28, 2005) - HTML From the supplier: The theory of comparative advantage as a justification for free trade was criticized. The basic rationale for comparative advantage is that specialization will promote the economic welfare of all trading countries. The concept of a 'coordination failure' in the international market was proposed. This coordination failure could have effects on employment levels and the distribution of income. Comparative advantage is problematic because it does not integrate time factors in its projections and because capital mobility may not result in more equitable income distributions. A Battler's Laissez-faire by P.L.S. Wombwell (Paperback - Mar 31, 1997) Laissez Faire and the General-Welfare State: A Study of Conflict in American Thought, 1865-1901 (Ann Arbor Paperbacks) by Sidney Fine (Paperback - Jul 15, 1956) Political Economy and Laissez-Faire: Economics and Ideology in the Ricardian Era by Rajani Kannepalli Kanth (Hardcover - Jun 1, 1986) The End of Laissez Faire and the Economic Consequences of the Peace [END OF LAISSEZ FAIRE & THE] by John Maynard(Author) Keynes (Paperback - Dec 31, 2004) Laissez Faire and the General Welfare State by Sidney Fine (Paperback - 1969) Laissez faire, laissez troquer (Histoire, economie, societe) (French Edition) by Jacques Nagels (Unknown Binding - 1986) The Great Challenge The Myth of Laissez-Faire in the Early Republic by Frank (Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Foreword) Bourgin (Hardcover - 1989) Laissez faire and after, by O. Fred Boucke (Unknown Binding - 1932)